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Cybrexa Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Biotech Industry Leader John Houston…
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Cybrexa Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Biotech Industry Leader John Houston to Board of Directors
John Houston brings more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development in pharma and biotech as Cybrexa prepares to transition to become a clinical-stage company
New Haven, Conn., September 3, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor-targeting platform, today announced the appointment of John Houston, PhD, to its board of directors. Dr. Houston brings more than 30 years of biotech and pharma drug development and management experience, including serving as the current CEO of Arvinas, Inc., a publicly traded targeted protein degradation biotech with programs in Oncology and Neuroscience.
“John has established an incredible reputation and track record in leading companies to successfully and quickly bring innovative drugs to patients,” said Per Hellsund, President and CEO of Cybrexa. “We are delighted that John will be joining the Cybrexa board at this point in time. Cybrexa is on the cusp of entering the clinic with our lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalexTM-rucaparib), and substantially expanding our pipeline. John’s experience in oncology and guiding companies through the transition from preclinical- to clinical-stage and private to public will be extremely valuable as Cybrexa continues to grow.”
Dr. Houston is President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas, Inc. Previously, he was the SVP of Specialty Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). He spent more than 18 years at BMS in roles of increasing responsibility and had accountability for all Discovery Biology disease teams as well as various Discovery technology departments. He was also the site head of the BMS Connecticut facility. Dr. Houston was a member of the BMS R&D Executive Leadership team and chaired the Target Portfolio Committee which had governance oversight in the discovery space. With his teams and research colleagues, he progressed over 200 compounds into early development, several of which advanced into late stage clinical trials, and toward commercialization. Dr. Houston has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, he worked at Glaxo Wellcome Research and Development in the UK, where he served as head of the Lead Discovery Unit.
Dr. Houston obtained his B.Sc degree in Medical Microbiology from Glasgow University and obtained his Ph.D. with Professor Brian Catley in Microbial Biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He also completed his post-doctoral studies on an MRC grant with Professor Julia Douglas at Glasgow University.
“I believe Cybrexa’s alphalexTM technology platform has tremendous potential to efficiently bring new treatment options to patients by leveraging already identified anti-cancer agents that have prohibitive toxicity profiles but promising potential efficacy” said Dr. Houston. “I am excited to be joining the Cybrexa board and look forward to working with the leadership team to provide my insights about the further development of CBX-11 and other alphalex-conjugates for cancer patients with high unmet need”
About the alphalex™ Technology Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at www.cybrexa.com.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11, an alphalex™-PARP inhibitor combination, is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
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Cybrexa Therapeutics Receives SBIR Grant to Support Development of Lead Candidate CBX-11 in Combination with Chemotherapy Agents
New Haven, Conn., July 2, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced that the company has been awarded a Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). This award will support the development of the company’s lead candidate, CBX-11, Cybrexa’s proprietary alphalex™ technology combined with the already-approved oral small molecule poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib, in combination with chemotherapy.
Per Hellsund, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cybrexa Therapeutics, stated, “We are extremely grateful to the NIH for this grant, the recognition of our science, and the importance of advancing the development of our new class of small molecule DNA repair inhibitors and DNA-damaging agents. In particular, this NIH grant will aid Cybrexa’s development of lead candidate, CBX-11, which we plan to enter into the clinic in the first quarter of next year. CBX-11 has the potential to enable effective treatment of tumors that are not homologous recombination deficient in combination with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents.”
Ranjit Bindra, Cybrexa scientific co-founder and collaborator on the proposal, added, “It’s quite exciting to see that our technology has been favorably peer-reviewed from a scientific standpoint, gaining traction with acceptances for presentation at medical meetings, and is now being supported by a highly competitive grant award program such as the SBIR. This SBIR grant represents an important external validation of the core technology that Cybrexa is developing.”
About National Institute of Health (NIH) and Small Business Innovation Research
NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States and enables small businesses to engage in federal research and development of innovative biomedical technologies with a strong potential for commercialization. In FY2018, NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs will invest over 1 billion dollars into health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives.
About Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in Combination with Chemotherapy
Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have demonstrated clear efficacy as monotherapies in the clinic against metastatic solid tumors in cancers with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). PARP inhibitors have showed only limited activity against non-HRD cancers. Combination therapy with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents has the potential to greatly enhance anti-tumor activity in non-HRD cancers, but combining PARP inhibitors with chemotherapy in clinical studies has been challenging largely due to the accompanying toxicity.
About alphalexTM Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
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Cybrexa Therapeutics Closes $13.4M in Series B1 Funding Round
New Haven, Conn., June 20, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced the completion of a $13.4 million Series B1 financing.
This brings the company’s total capital raised to date to $21.1 million. Cybrexa’s existing investors – CT Innovations, HighCape Capital Special Opportunities Fund, and Cycle Venture Partners – all participated in the round. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Cybrexa’s first clinical candidate CBX-11 (alphalexTM-rucaparib) into clinical development and to progress additional programs in its preclinical pipeline.
“This level of financial support from our investors demonstrates the continued enthusiasm and validation for our innovative, proprietary alphalex™ platform technology,” said Per Hellsund, President & CEO of Cybrexa. “We look forward to advancing our lead candidate, CBX-11, into the clinic by the first quarter of 2020 as well as further developing additional new therapeutic candidates leveraging our alphalex™ technology, which we believe has the transformative potential to improve tumor response and overall survival while limiting toxicity.”
About the alphalex™ Technology Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
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